Grade 3 Social Studies
9 units matched to the Ontario Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Our World”.
Overall expectations
- A1 Application: Life in Canada – Then and Now: Compare ways of life among some specific groups in Canada, including a few First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, from around 1780 to 1850, and describe some of the changes between that era and the present day
- A2 Inquiry: Community Challenges and Adaptations: Use the social studies inquiry process to investigate some of the major challenges that various groups and communities, including a few First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, faced in Canada from around 1780 to 1850, and key measures taken to address these challenges
- A3 Understanding Context: Life in Colonial Canadian Communities: Identify some of the communities in Canada, including a few First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, from around 1780 to 1850, and describe their relationships to the land and to each other
- B1 Application: Land Use and the Environment: Demonstrate an understanding of some key aspects of the interrelationship between the natural environment, land use, employment opportunities, and the development of municipal regions, First Nations communities, and/or Métis regions in Ontario
- B2 Inquiry: The Impact of Land and Resource Use: Use the social studies inquiry process to investigate some of the environmental effects of different types of land and/or resource use in two or more Ontario municipal regions, First Nations communities, and/or Métis regions, as well as some of the measures taken to reduce the negative impact of that use
- B3 Understanding Context: Regions and Land Use in Ontario: Describe major landform regions and types of land use in Ontario and some of the ways in which land use in various Ontario municipalities, including First Nations communities and/or Métis regions, addresses human needs and wants, including the need for jobs
Units
Unit 1
Life Then & Now
How people lived about 200 years ago (homes, light, water, travel, food, chores and school), how it differed among First Nations, Métis, Inuit and settler communities, and what is part of identity in Canada today: two official languages, multiculturalism and religious freedom.
Expectation: A1.1–A1.4, A3.6 · everyday life in communities in Canada from 1780 to 1850 compared with today, and parts of Canadian identity today
Unit 2
Communities of the Early 1800s
Upper and Lower Canada, Loyalist, French, Irish, Scottish and Black settler communities, First Nations such as the Six Nations of the Grand River, Métis communities, the fur trade, and why settlements grew up on rivers and lakes.
Expectation: A3.1, A3.2, A3.3, A3.5 · First Nations, Métis and settler communities in Upper and Lower Canada and what shaped where they grew
Unit 3
Challenges & Solutions
Isolation, long winters, few doctors and loss of land, and how neighbours and communities responded. Also builds history detective skills: primary and secondary sources, good questions, maps, timelines and key words like settler, treaty and refugee.
Expectation: A2.1–A2.6, A3.4 · challenges faced by communities from 1780 to 1850 and how people met them, with inquiry skills and vocabulary
Unit 4
Treaties & Allies
What treaties and wampum belts are (including the Two Row Wampum), allies in the War of 1812, and how communities cooperated and sometimes came into conflict. Reviewed with care for First Nations perspectives; deeper treaty content is not covered.
Expectation: A3.7, A3.8 · treaties and wampum belts, and cooperation and conflict between communities
Unit 5
Regions of Ontario
Ontario's three main landform regions (the Canadian Shield, the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Lowlands and the Hudson Bay Lowlands), the Great Lakes, cities, towns, First Nations and Métis regions, and what local governments do.
Expectation: B3.1, B3.2, B3.3 · Ontario's municipal regions, political maps, and its landform regions
Unit 6
Land Use & Jobs
Farming, housing, industry, recreation, transportation and conservation, how natural features lead to ports, farms and mines, jobs in different communities, and comparing land use in small and large places.
Expectation: B1.1–B1.3, B3.4–B3.6 · how landforms and resources shape land use and jobs in Ontario communities
Unit 7
Land & the Environment
How logging, mining, farming and cities affect the environment, ways to reduce harm (reforestation, rehabilitation, public transit, protecting wetlands and the Greenbelt), reading data and maps, and thinking about different perspectives.
Expectation: B2.1–B2.6 · the environmental effects of land and resource use in Ontario and measures to reduce harm
Unit 8
Map Skills
Using a legend, compass rose, number and letter grid and scale, reading population and thematic maps, and telling intermediate directions such as northeast.
Expectation: B1.3, B2.3, B3.2, B3.7 · reading and making maps: legends, grids, directions and scale
Unit 9
Maps & Globes
Naming continents and oceans, using north, south, east and west on a simple town map, and reading map features such as a legend (key), compass rose and scale.
Expectation: B3.2, B3.7 · using a legend, compass rose and directions to read maps
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